The iceman cometh.

Hallelujah! There’s now a slightly increased chance of your home temporailty becoming a walk-in freezer.

A non-toxic pesticide marketer claims it has a new product (Cryonite) which can freeze out bed bugs. Lifestyle Extra Fincance News says:

Venteco PLC, the non-toxic pest control investment compant, said it has deployed bed bug eradication technology to its first hotel, potentially opening a major new market.

With cryonite technology, which freezes pests using a patented carbon dioxide snow, Venteco said it stands to corner a receptive market since the incidence of bed bugs – which conventional insecticides find difficult to tackle – is reputedly on the rise. To hotel operators, cryonite is an attractive alternative to traditional pesticides since they are able to re-let the room immediately after use and avoid lost revenue.

Hotel schmotel: bring on the residential version!

Trials of the cryonite technology were carried out by Insect Investigations Ltd, an independent pest control research firm. They achieved a 100 pct kill rate of bed bug adults, nymphs and eggs.

Well, Bedbuggers, this technology has been developed since 1996, and the NYTimes talked about it in 2003. But given the bed bug pandemic, it looks set to be developed for this purpose. Let’s hope they market it here in the US, and soon. There’s a Cryonite machine handbook here. (Warning: clicking the link will download a PDF.) Thanks to Ken for the manual link.

[W]e have identified 15 affected units out of 1237 on campus. All have been thoroughly treated by Terminix with two forms of treatment including a pesticide and a frozen CO2 treatment. Terminix will be back weekly to inspect and re-treat these units as necessary.

I know David told us he wasn’t impressed with cryonite, but I keep wanting to know what the results are here in the U.S.

This update indicates the 15 infested units became 24 when all was said and done and Terminix used steam as well.

This suggests that Terminix is pulling out all the stops when it comes to treatment for institutional clients. This is encouraging, except that we heard in the forum from a Boston Terminix customer and that person’s experience suggests that they have a different tier of service for individual apartment dwellers where they only use conventional pesticides.

Different service levels are to be expected, but it’s frustrating all the same.

Please read my comment here. It is not necessary to continue plugging your company’s services in every comment and forum post.

Your joining into the conversations is very welcomed, but so far it feels kind of like spam. We love it when professionals join in our conversations, but not if the participation is solely limited to plugging your services. The site does accept advertising, but the comments are not really the place. I hope you understand and we hope you will still participate.